


On the Field of Battle

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21992422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: Buffy has dedicated herself to training others to fight the Walkers but is the new group she meets during a battle friend or foe.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2019





	On the Field of Battle

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not mine, Joss Whedon owns the former and Robert Kirkman owns the latter.
> 
> **Notes:** written for 3AM_moonlight for the prompt Buffy the Vampire Slayer/The Walking Dead, Buffy Summers, teaching the survivors how to fight and kill.

XXX

Buffy watched the new pocket of humanity she and her friends had stumbled upon moving through the drills she had taught them. What was left of her ragtag gang of friends had moved east with her. Somehow Giles was still hanging in there as was Dawn though she’d lost an eye. Buffy had wept days after that, thinking it was all her fault even though Dawn assured her it wasn’t. Willow stayed at her side. They’d buried Xander near Las Vegas and Anya somewhere in Missouri which would probably somehow upset her. They never found Andrew and Buffy assumed he was now a Walker.

Spike and Angel had elected to stay in California. Everyone knew the gasoline wouldn’t hold out forever and the vampires couldn’t easily move long distances on horse back. Besides, the west coast needed protectors too. Faith remained with them reasoning they could use a Slayer. Buffy always wondered if it was because she and Faith didn’t trust one another but she couldn’t say she didn’t occasionally wish for another Slayer when the Walkers were thick.

“Alice, you keep dropping your guard on your right. Keep that arm up,” she called to the middle-aged woman, not someone she really wanted to train because Alice was far from a natural but no one in this new, ugly age should have to rely entirely on others. Buffy believed everyone needed to fight as much as they were able if humanity was ever to rebuild and get ahead of this…infection? Germ warfare gone wrong? Apocalyptic spell? It didn’t matter really at this point what had started it. They needed to finish it. “Tom, that’s a knife you’ve got, not a baseball bat. Barry, good work. Always go for the kill shot. Heads people, that’s their weak point. It’s a small target but the only one that matters.”

“Buffy!”

She whipped around to see Marisol, a ten-year-old girl, racing her way. A pair of binoculars bounced on her chest.

“Buffy, there’s a huge group of Walkers nearing the town’s edge but I saw others riding behind them. It’s crazy!” Marisol cried.

“Tom, sound the alarm,” Buffy instructed. “Sounds like we’ve got an emergency on our hands.”

As Tom raced through what was left of the rural village, shouting his head off, followed by others of her band of trainees, Buffy took off in the direction Marisol indicated, stopping just long enough to get her sword and a small axe. Willow followed her with a long dagger of her own. A few of the more able and willing townspeople trooped after them.

By the time they reached the one-time farm fields, now beginning to overgrow with brush and trees - something Buffy thought they might want to burn back to keep a clean field of vision – Buffy saw the Walkers full engaged with a group who didn’t need her instructions in how to fight. One small warrior moved like an otter through water. At first Buffy thought it was another Slayer but then he turned and she saw the full beard. The dark-skinned woman fought like a she was a Slayer, her dreadlocks flying as she hacked her way through the Walkers. Two other men followed on the heels of their companions, slashed and bashing as they went.

“I don’t think we’ll even need my magic,” Willow said.

“Keep it in reserve until we know who these people are,” Buffy replied.

They joined the battle, startling the newcomers but only temporarily. The infusion of Buffy’s team into the mix made for much shorter work of the Walkers. After they were dead and the team had stacked them up into a pile for burning, Buffy took a better assessing look at the group. Everyone – herself included – sweated and stank. The little bearded guy wasn’t half bad to look at and the sentiment shocked her but maybe it shouldn’t. Everyone’s boundaries in that arena had loosened up. Sexual hang ups seemed to be pointless in this brave new world, but on the other hand, sex seemed ill-advised to her unless they could find a stockpile of condoms that hadn’t gone bad. She knew babies were being born but she pitied those children more than she ever had, even while living on Sunnydale’s hellmouth. 

“Seems like you know how to fight,” the bearded fellow said with a grin.

“I was about to say the same of you all,” Buffy replied. “I’m Buffy and this is Willow.” She swept her hand out toward her best friend. “And from the town that’s LaMont, Ashley, Alice and Barry.”

The older man stepped forward. “I’m Rick and she’s Michonne.” He draped an arm around her in a way that told Buffy they weren’t just fighting partners.

“I’m Daryl,” the crossbow-wielding man with lank hair said. He pointed with the tip of his weapon to the bearded fellow. “And that’s Jesus.”

Jesus rolled his eyes and added softly, “Paul.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Willow bubbled. “Are you just moving through?”

Rick gave her a non-committal shrug. “Just going where we’re needed.”

“We could always use good fighters,” Jesus said, and Daryl shot him an arched look.

“We’re more of a move in, train the folk and keep going type,” Buffy said, waving a hand at Alice who said, “You’ll leave us?”

“We’re not the town leaders,” Willow added. “That’s Tom, if you want to meet him, maybe rest for a while.”

Buffy wasn’t so sure she would have invited them in so quickly but Willow’s faith in humanity was still mostly unshaken. The look on Rick’s face said he might feel the same as Buffy.

“I’ll get the horses,” Jesus said, and Michonne followed him.

Buffy shrugged. Maybe it would be good for the town to have a few other good warriors around. If they were trouble, well, a normal human was rarely trouble for a Slayer. It could be they had similar plans. It could be beneficial. She could dream, right?


End file.
